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Vaping rules
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had realised, says Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex, UK. Other findings published this week suggest that neonicotinoids have a harmful short-term impact on wild bees. At sites treated with the substances, there was a drop in wild bee density, solitary bee nesting and bumblebee reproduction, compared with control plots, although there was no effect on honeybees (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature14420). “Whether this also translates into long-term population consequences is still an open question,” says Maj Rundlöf of Lund University in Sweden.
CALL it a success for clicktivism. A new online voter registration system for the upcoming UK election has smashed all records, with over 450,000 people signing up to vote the day before the 20 April deadline. Previously, voters could only register by filling out a paper form, which some feared was off-putting, particularly for young people who may never have voted before. Figures suggest as many as 7.5 million eligible voters were not registered. “As people increasingly grow to expect that
60 Seconds
they can conduct almost every aspect of their lives online, it is time electoral registration caught up,” said government minister Greg Clark at the launch of the system last year. The online system only requires a few clicks, along with your national insurance number or other ID for authentication. Politicians, columnists and celebrities have been driving people to register on Twitter and other social media, with great success. Over a million signed up in the last week of registration; just 55,000 paper sign-ups occurred in the same time period.
FBI confesses to hair mistakes
Vaping rules
REUTERS/Keith Bedford
THE smoke of choice for US SOMETIMES you win or lose by a whisker. The FBI has admitted that schoolkids has changed. In 2014, flawed evidence was accepted in for the first time, more highnearly all of the trials in the 1980s school students smoked and 1990s that included microscopic electronic cigarettes than hair analysis evidence. traditional ones. Whether the rise Since 2012, the FBI has been of e-cigarettes is welcome news reviewing 2600 cases in which hair or a fresh face on an old publicevidence was among that used to health menace is not yet clear. secure a conviction. The trials under Although the number of scrutiny took place between about teenagers admitting they smoke any kind of tobacco product hasn’t 1980 and 1999, when hairs were assessed by microscope – a technique drastically changed since 2011, the number of high schoolers smoking criticised for its lack of rigour. Of the 268 trials reviewed so far, e-cigarettes leaped from 1.5 per cent in 2011 to 13.4 per cent in 2014. more than 95 per cent included evidence that was overstated by If the 22,000 youngsters polled analysts. Death sentences were for the National Youth Tobacco given in at least 35 of those cases, Survey are representative of their and nine people were executed. peers nationwide, this equates to 2.4 million students vaping last year, triple the number in 2013. Using a hookah was also twice as popular in 2014 than 2013. The survey showed cigarette smoking was down from 15.8 per cent in 2011 to 9.8 per cent in 2014. A similar study carried out in Wales, UK, suggests that vaping does not have the same foothold on the other side of the Atlantic. Researchers at Cardiff University found that e-cigarette use is only catching up with traditional tobacco use in younger teenagers, with those aged 15 and 16 still –Bad hair day– preferring cigarettes.
Another five died in prison. The trials are likely to have involved other evidence, though. Written reports on hair analysis were often sound and framed with caveats, but evidence tended to be exaggerated in court, says Peter De Forest, a forensic consultant in New York. “Very often the testimony went way beyond the report,” he says. In a statement, the FBI said that it now uses mitochondrial DNA hair analysis. But even this can only distinguish individuals from different maternal lines, so wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between anyone related on their mother’s side. And many jurisdictions don’t use it because it is expensive and time-consuming, said the FBI.
You smell like lunch Irresistible to mosquitoes? Thank your genes. Identical twins are similarly attractive to mosquitoes – much more so than non-identical twins. This suggests genes contribute to the body odours that attract and repel the insects (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0122716).
Japan moon shot Japan’s space agency plans to send its first uncrewed probe to the moon in 2018 or 2019, reports The Japan Times. The mission is a follow-up to its 2007 orbiter, which was smashed into the moon in 2009. The mission could pave the way for sending people to the moon – something only the US has done so far.
Sensitive souls Ouch. The brains of newborn babies appear to respond to pain in a similar way to those of adults. Researchers poked the feet of adults and babies less than a week old while they were in an MRI scanner. They found that 18 of the 20 brain regions active in adults experiencing pain also lit up in the babies. The infants also appeared to have a lower pain threshold (eLIFE, doi.org/3v8).
Our cannibal past Cannibalism might have been a custom for our Stone-Age ancestors, who even carved the leftover skulls into cups for use in mortuary rituals. Extensive evidence of butchering and human tooth marks were found on bones from Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, UK, that are almost 15,000 years old (Journal of Human Evolution, doi.org/3vc).
Bunny trouble Climate change will affect two-thirds of lagomorphs, the order that rabbits and hares belong to. Many will be forced to more northern habitats or higher altitudes. Pikas will see their mountain habitats shrink and some may even go extinct as a result (PLoS One, doi.org/3t9).
25 April 2015 | NewScientist | 7
Click to vote
had realised, says Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex, UK. Other findings published this week suggest that neonicotinoids have a harmful short-term impact on wild bees. At sites treated with the substances, there was a drop in wild bee density, solitary bee nesting and bumblebee reproduction, compared with control plots, although there was no effect on honeybees (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature14420). “Whether this also translates into long-term population consequences is still an open question,” says Maj Rundlöf of Lund University in Sweden.
CALL it a success for clicktivism. A new online voter registration system for the upcoming UK election has smashed all records, with over 450,000 people signing up to vote the day before the 20 April deadline. Previously, voters could only register by filling out a paper form, which some feared was off-putting, particularly for young people who may never have voted before. Figures suggest as many as 7.5 million eligible voters were not registered. “As people increasingly grow to expect that
60 Seconds
they can conduct almost every aspect of their lives online, it is time electoral registration caught up,” said government minister Greg Clark at the launch of the system last year. The online system only requires a few clicks, along with your national insurance number or other ID for authentication. Politicians, columnists and celebrities have been driving people to register on Twitter and other social media, with great success. Over a million signed up in the last week of registration; just 55,000 paper sign-ups occurred in the same time period.
FBI confesses to hair mistakes
Vaping rules
REUTERS/Keith Bedford
THE smoke of choice for US SOMETIMES you win or lose by a whisker. The FBI has admitted that schoolkids has changed. In 2014, flawed evidence was accepted in for the first time, more highnearly all of the trials in the 1980s school students smoked and 1990s that included microscopic electronic cigarettes than hair analysis evidence. traditional ones. Whether the rise Since 2012, the FBI has been of e-cigarettes is welcome news reviewing 2600 cases in which hair or a fresh face on an old publicevidence was among that used to health menace is not yet clear. secure a conviction. The trials under Although the number of scrutiny took place between about teenagers admitting they smoke any kind of tobacco product hasn’t 1980 and 1999, when hairs were assessed by microscope – a technique drastically changed since 2011, the number of high schoolers smoking criticised for its lack of rigour. Of the 268 trials reviewed so far, e-cigarettes leaped from 1.5 per cent in 2011 to 13.4 per cent in 2014. more than 95 per cent included evidence that was overstated by If the 22,000 youngsters polled analysts. Death sentences were for the National Youth Tobacco given in at least 35 of those cases, Survey are representative of their and nine people were executed. peers nationwide, this equates to 2.4 million students vaping last year, triple the number in 2013. Using a hookah was also twice as popular in 2014 than 2013. The survey showed cigarette smoking was down from 15.8 per cent in 2011 to 9.8 per cent in 2014. A similar study carried out in Wales, UK, suggests that vaping does not have the same foothold on the other side of the Atlantic. Researchers at Cardiff University found that e-cigarette use is only catching up with traditional tobacco use in younger teenagers, with those aged 15 and 16 still –Bad hair day– preferring cigarettes.
Another five died in prison. The trials are likely to have involved other evidence, though. Written reports on hair analysis were often sound and framed with caveats, but evidence tended to be exaggerated in court, says Peter De Forest, a forensic consultant in New York. “Very often the testimony went way beyond the report,” he says. In a statement, the FBI said that it now uses mitochondrial DNA hair analysis. But even this can only distinguish individuals from different maternal lines, so wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between anyone related on their mother’s side. And many jurisdictions don’t use it because it is expensive and time-consuming, said the FBI.
You smell like lunch Irresistible to mosquitoes? Thank your genes. Identical twins are similarly attractive to mosquitoes – much more so than non-identical twins. This suggests genes contribute to the body odours that attract and repel the insects (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0122716).
Japan moon shot Japan’s space agency plans to send its first uncrewed probe to the moon in 2018 or 2019, reports The Japan Times. The mission is a follow-up to its 2007 orbiter, which was smashed into the moon in 2009. The mission could pave the way for sending people to the moon – something only the US has done so far.
Sensitive souls Ouch. The brains of newborn babies appear to respond to pain in a similar way to those of adults. Researchers poked the feet of adults and babies less than a week old while they were in an MRI scanner. They found that 18 of the 20 brain regions active in adults experiencing pain also lit up in the babies. The infants also appeared to have a lower pain threshold (eLIFE, doi.org/3v8).
Our cannibal past Cannibalism might have been a custom for our Stone-Age ancestors, who even carved the leftover skulls into cups for use in mortuary rituals. Extensive evidence of butchering and human tooth marks were found on bones from Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, UK, that are almost 15,000 years old (Journal of Human Evolution, doi.org/3vc).
Bunny trouble Climate change will affect two-thirds of lagomorphs, the order that rabbits and hares belong to. Many will be forced to more northern habitats or higher altitudes. Pikas will see their mountain habitats shrink and some may even go extinct as a result (PLoS One, doi.org/3t9).
25 April 2015 | NewScientist | 7